Wow...yea Lincolnl sounds a little mad at the world which brings me to a point I have. I think Matt's question is valid personally to me because I'm so sick and tired of spending my money buying cds today that are recorded too hot and driven into distortion levels including a lot of remastered cds (alot of which is in the lower bass ranges). What is up with this!? Does anybody out there agree with this or do I have an over-sensitive ear for distortion. My equipment validates what I'm hearing because everytime I bring a cd home and play it in my cd player and I hear clipping or distortion I immediatly take the cd out and play it in my Marantz Professional cd recorder (which has led meters) and sure enough the meters are going well into the red!! Do the engineers or whom ever is responsible, know the very basics when recording digitally, which is not going over and into the red, or are they intentionally doing this to get our attention on the radio (louder is more noticable).I don't know about you, but this really irritates me and I cannot listen to the cd again (and since you opened it your stuck with it) I can lists so many cds that are like this in which I've wasted my money, that I think this subject deserves a seperate thread. A lot of these cds are in the pop category but I'm seeing this creeping into alot of other styles also and it has been going on for a few years. I can lists many many cds that are like this. Of course the better your equipment the more noticable this problem is. I've decided since the recording industry is putting this kind of stuff out I'm not buying another cd unless it's something that I've already heard or previewed or is a recording from sheffield labs, mobile fidelity,etc. and other reputable artists who have more controll over the whole process. Sorry for kind of getting off track here...now I need to take a cold shower to cool off.